Increased AP Costs to Fire Aimed Shots
One of HAM's major goals is to decrease the unrealistic usefulness of aimed shots. One of the systems created for this purpose increases the AP cost of adding extra "aiming levels". History JA2 Single-Shots allow adding extra accuracy through the spending of extra Action Points. Each extra aiming level cost a single AP, and would increase your Chance-to-Hit by 10 whole points. In the original game, this wasn't much of a problem - at most it could add up to +40 Chance-to-Hit, which really isn't a lot. Also, there were very few weapons with the required range to strike enemies beyond sight-range. JA2 1.13 changed this by introducing long-ranged weapons that could aim up to 8 extra levels (at the cost of 8 APs), achieving very high Chance-to-Hit at the heads of distant enemies. HAM 2 - Increasing AP costs for Extra Aiming One of the ways that HAM tackles this problem is by increasing the cost of adding extra aiming levels in Single-Shot mode. With HAM 2.8, aiming beyond the first four aiming clicks would incur an additional penalty of 1 AP per click. Aiming beyond the first six clicks would incur an even greater penalty of 2 APs per click. In addition, HAM 2.8 introduced an extra "Starting" cost equal to half of the gun's ready cost, paid upon the very first aiming click. With this Increased AP cost system, aimed shots cost a lot more APs than they used to. Adding all 8 aiming levels (only possible with a sniper rifle) costs a whopping 14APs, not including half the "Ready Cost" of the gun itself. Compare this to the 8 AP cost in vanilla JA2 1.13. How the system works Use the following list to determine the cost at each aiming level #When the first aiming level is added, there's an extra AP cost equal to 1/2 of the weapon's "APs to Ready" cost, rounded up. So a weapon with 2 APs to draw would cost 1 extra AP for the first aiming level. #If the weapon has a scope attached, the first aiming level costs yet another 1 extra AP. #Aiming levels 2-4 cost 1 AP each, as normal in JA2. #Aiming levels 5-6 cost 2 APs each (instead of 1) #Aiming levels 7-8 cost 3 APs each (instead of 1) The main effect is that this makes sniper rifles (or any weapon capable of more than 4 aiming levels) cost considerably more Action Points/APs to aim to it's full potential. This discourages "casual" aimed shots, leaving high-end accuracy to snipers who can afford to sit back and aim properly. During an intense battle situation, most characters will prefer spending their APs on moving into cover or maneuvering closer to the enemy, than wasting them on high aiming levels. Alternately, if using HAM Suppression, you are more likely to spend your APs on a burst or autofire volley instead. Only dedicated marksmen and snipers will be going for those 6th or 8th aiming levels. Category:Features Problems with the system This system doesn't come cheap - it carries with it several problems. Most importantly, since some of the huge anti-material rifles (like the M2 Gepard) cost a ton of APs to fire already, using the Increased Aiming Cost system could push aiming costs so far that it would be impossible to aim these weapons to their full extent. While such weapons remain incredibly accurate even with less than 8 aiming levels, this is still a problem (caused by the way the game works). On the whole, however, if you do feel that scopes and aimed single-shots are too powerful, you can probably activate this feature without fear. HAM 3.1 - Externalized Aiming Costs and 100AP system HAM B2.8 was integrated into the code following the 100AP system. As of HAM 2.8, costs are automatically adjusted to fit the new system. HAM 3.1 was introduced shortly thereafter. Due to public demand, all of the above costs were externalized, and can be edited by players using a group of APBPConstant.INI setting. How the system works Use the following list to determine the cost at each aiming level #When the first aiming level is added, there's an extra AP cost equal to 1/X of the weapon's "AP to Ready" cost, rounded up. X is set in a JA2_Options.INI setting called "FIRST_AIM_READY_COST_DIVISOR". (see more info below) #If a scope is installed on the weapon, and the range to target is sufficient for scope use, the program reads independent costs for EACH SEPARATE AIMING LEVEL, from the various related settings in APBPConstants.INI (see more info below) This externalizes the entire system, allowing players to decide for themselves how many APs they must pay for each extra aiming click. You can also eliminate the extra "APs to Ready" cost entirely, and can also use the INI settings to make the game behave the same as it did in JA2 1.13. Also, due to integration with 100AP, the default costs per aiming click have been changed to provide more precise difference in costs between each aiming click. INI Settings As of HAM 3.1, this feature has two settings in JA2_Options.INI, and no less than 8 settings in APBPConstants.INI. If you are using an earlier version of HAM (I.E. HAM 2.8), the system can only be turned on and off (one setting in JA2_Options.INI). INCREASED_AIM_COST FIRST_AIM_READY_COST_DIVISOR AP_FIRST_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE There are eight different settings, all of these are in your APBPConstants.INI file: *AP_FIRST_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_SECOND_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_THIRD_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_FOURTH_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_FIFTH_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_SIXTH_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_SEVENTH_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE *AP_EIGHTTH_CLICK_AIM_SCOPE See Also Dynamic Aiming Level Restrictions Category:Combat Features